The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle

Read January 6 - January 23

A book that I've been aware of for many years, but like Lord of the Rings, a book that I also haven't ever read. I have a number of friends who love this book and swear about the quality of its fantasy elements.

This copy was acquired when I purchased a collection of eBooks from Humble Bundle, and my first attempt at a Read Harder challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to finally read it.

I originally started to read this back in December, but had to put it down because of a library book that was finally available, and decided later to use this as my Read A Fantasy Novel selection.

To say that I struggled through this read is an understatement. I don't want to say that it was boring, but it rarely held my attention and I found myself not really caring if any of the character made their way out of whatever mis-adventure that they found themselves in.

A user on a specialty press's forum told me:

"The Last Unicorn is an odd little book. It doesn't quite fit into the regular mold for fantasy, it's not Tolkien-esque high fantasy, nor Howard-esque low fantasy, but instead hearkens more, in some ways, to Lord Dunsany. In some ways it's a series of parables, in others a satire, but beneath it all it's poetic escapism. The pacing is odd and maybe a bit clunky, but I'd rather that than a paint by numbers fantasy story.

It seems nowadays that fantasy has rigid parameters, mostly inspire by the aforementioned Tolkien and Howard. Admittedly now it is expanding a bit again, but I really loved the earlier works (say pre-Tolkien, or just post-Tolkien) when fantasy felt more free."

I do wonder if it's the pacing that I struggled with in such a way that it made me not enjoy the book?